News Release Number: STScI-2006-10

Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View

February 28, 2006: Giant galaxies weren’t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space
Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is
the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever
been released from Hubble. The galaxy’s portrait is actually composed of 51
individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys
and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994,
June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image
also includes elements from images from ground-based photos.